Almost week gone waste at UN climate talks: BASIC negotiator

By Vishal Gulati

Bonn, Nov 15 (IANS) Almost a week has gone waste at the UN Climate Change talks to bring the developed world back on track on meeting its commitments towards climate action, a top climate negotiator, who is part of BASIC countries, including India, said on Wednesday. And this was regrettable.

"It took us a week to persuade the other side (developed countries) to come with us. Instead of discussing on procedure, we could have made better use to discuss substance," Brazil Ambassador and Vice-Minister for the Environment, Energy, Science and Technology J. Antonio Marcondes told IANS.

He said the other side had realised after a week "what is needed to hit the ground as 2020 comes near".

"Yes, we wasted a weeklong discussing procedure instead of a direction. It's regrettable and now it's time to move faster," he added.

Batting for adequate financial and technology resources to assist the developing world, BASIC countries during the negotiations emphasised the need for openness, transparency and the country-driven nature of negotiations at the ongoing UN Climate Change conference.

The ministers underlined the importance to prepare the ground towards completing the work on implementing of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, a joint statement said on the conclusion of the 25th BASIC Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change Ministers here on Monday.

This was the meeting of the grouping -- Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC) -- that came into effect after the Paris climate change conference in 2015.

India's Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan told reporters that the BASIC would continue to work together to achieve ultimate goal of addressing climate change in a manner that avoids dangerous anthropogenic interference with climate system and temperature goal.

Favouring positive and constructive actions for combating climate change, he said India's commitment to climate action is second to none.

"India has committed to a reduction of 20 per cent by 2020 that will most certainly achieve."

Vardhan called upon both the developed and developing countries to fulfil their commitment for pre-2020 period.

He said India's equal commitment was to achieve Nationally Determined Contribution target of reduction of energy intensity of India's GDP by 33-35 per cent by 2030.

"While we are doing our bit, our strong commitment must be met by the leadership that the developed countries are supposed to provide in taking actions regarding mitigation and support in terms of finance and technologies."

He called for early ratification of the second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol and concrete actions on provisions of support.

"India expects that the second commitment period is operationalised as per existing commitments. By 2020 the goal of $100 billion per year must be achieved and following the principle of non-regression and that this must improve further in following years,a he added.

According to him, India's contribution to cumulative stock of carbon dioxide equivalent is less than three per cent and it is clear that India has followed remarkably sustainable path of development.

Special Representative for Climate Change Affairs of China Xie Zhenhua said the developed countries should first cut emissions and provide support to developing countries before 2020.

"We hope before 2020 developed countries fulfil their commitments. Developing countries are taking their actions. We have taken further actions than we were asked to do so,a he said.

The BASIC ministers urged developed countries to honour their commitments and increase climate finance towards at least $100 billion per annum goal by 2020, to be scaled up significantly thereafter.

In the post-2020 period, the ministers called upon developed countries to provide financial resources to assist developing countries with respect to both mitigation and adaptation in continuation of their existing obligations under the convention.

Two years after the world united around the Paris Climate Agreement and a year after its entry into force, the 197 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 197 have reconvened for their 23rd annual climate change talks (this one is COP 23) in Bonn till November 17.

The talks, which began on November 6, are expected to take a number of decisions necessary to bring the Paris Agreement to life, including meaningful progress on the agreement to implement guidelines to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius with an aim to cut greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

(Vishal Gulati is in Bonn at the invitation of the Global Editors Network to cover COP23. He can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

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